15 posts from May 2008

30 May 2008

My sabbatical is almost over and now I am counting down the single digit days. This is my second sabbatical while working for Autodesk and was 6 weeks in length and spent primarily doing what I wanted, when I wanted but all relatively close to home. I am now preparing a new presentation for AUGI CAD Camps and User Group meetings of which I have quite a few lined up in the next 30 days starting in toasty Phoenix Arizona on the 10th of June and hopefully I can get together with Scott of Autodesk Labs while in his neck of the woods. I also have a ton of email to catch up on and also the multilingual blog experimentation.

26 May 2008

Every since this Between the Lines "BTL" blog launched in 2003 as a fun unofficial experiment for an Autodesk employee readers have been increasing in reading to the tune of more than 100,000 a week in RSS feeds alone. The readers are from all around the world and many appear to use translated links to read the blog in which posts of mine are primarily in English. This got me to thinking about another experience, how about volunteer translation from the reader community as guest authors.

I want to expand this blog's helpful tips and tricks and resources as well as fun further as well as provide local subject experts on Autodesk products like AutoCAD an outlet with a huge readership to post their own posts in a community blogging approach in many languages.

This blogs web browsers top languages and regions for the past 30 days is:

For example in addition to translating the posts I make to other language the guest author may make a post in Japanese and also publish if applicable for the English readers as well as other language readers.

I am still thinking this through but if you speak and write another language fluently such as

العربية

Български

Dansk

Deutsch

Ελληνικά

Español

فارسی

Français

한국어

Italiano

עברית

Nederlands

日本語

Polski

Português

Română

Русский

Türkçe

中文

...and would like to be a guest author on this blog please Email Me and indicate your native language and how you can contribute to this effort to globally assist fellow Autodesk product users as well as have fun and recognition (and perhaps more) for your efforts.

23 May 2008

I had a blast attending the AUGI CAD Camp yesterday in Salt Lake City Utah with about 200 other people. There were a bunch of familiar faces and great classes. I snuck into most classes as well as snapped a few photos even in the low light.

Matt Murphy got to see his world traveling Matt Murphy Clay Head Sculpture in person for the first time since Autodesk University 2007. Plans are being set to take the Matt Murphy Clay Head Sculpture to more CAD Camps as well as to Autodesk University 2008.

Congratulations to Penni Cromar for winning the Top DAUG competition as well as the other 9 people placing and getting prizes..

I wanted to give a big special thank you to ProSoft for sponsoring the Salt Lake AUGI CAD Camp.

21 May 2008

I am still on sabbatical relaxing but all that means is I get to work only when I want to. ;-)

I have began planning my schedule for June after I have to go back to work. I am planning the topics as well as getting prepared for questions and answers as I really enjoy the Q&A for all things Autodesk as well as geek topics. I love a good challenge being a former mechanical designer out in the industry trenches and have used many products both Autodesk ones and non-Autodesk. I consider my use and trying to keep up on many of them a skill I termed CADidextrous like the rare ambidextrous people that can be right or left handed.

I see software and computers as a tool or barrier in design. The best thing is for the applications to be more transparent so you can focus on your design as that is a huge task in its own right, but also assist you when you need. Imagine designing without worrying about the limitations of the soap bar mouse or translating the design idea in your mind to the steps to get it done in the application, ah that's the spot we should all be aiming for but no USB port in the skull as that is taking things a little too far.

As with any of my travels I have a standing invitation to join me for dinner or breakfast to chat as well I am game for any local hiking or photo excursions even snake and scorpion photo stalking.

I love Phoenix for the desert photography which I recently had an image I took selected to be shown in an upcoming independent movie.I earned that as I got 4 flat tires in 4.5 seconds the day before at Camelback but that is a story I am trying to forget.

I have not been to Detroit before, but I have been to Lansing Michigan and the people were awesome.

That's right AUGI CAD Camp is tomorrow in Salt Lake City Utah which is also where the American Idol winner David Archuleta is from. Personally I was a fan of David Cook for his music style and his personality but only watched the final show to see who won but did not watch the entire season. Although I lived for a few years where the American Idol winner is from in Murray Utah and now live in Salt Lake City I cannot carry a single note.

I have my own little American Idol starring in a play for her kindergarten class in the morning and right after that will be headed to AUGI CAD Camp for the rest of the day. If you are attending please say hi and bring your Autodesk product feedback as I love getting the feedback, tips and tricks and taking back to the development teams. As usual I will be packing my camera and be posting some photos in the evening. CAD Camp is a great and cheap opportunity to gain more skills with the best in class products from Autodesk's flagship AutoCAD to Revit to Inventor and more. I will be brining the infamous Autodesk University 2007 Matt Murphy clay head sculpture with me for those wanting to pose with it, kiss it, or perhaps see if it is for real....For those quantum physics freaks wondering if there will be a burp or bend in the time space fabric due to the real Matt Murphy and the Matt Murphy Clay Head Sculpture in the same room should be assured last time they were in the same place at the same time nothing really bad happened.

Cheers,Shaan

OK I was messing with people, the real winner is David Cook! At least I did not use the overused comment that "David won" as both their names were David.

19 May 2008

I am excited to see the recent public announcement of the Autodesk acquisition of REALVIZ. REALVIZ has great products and technology and I am excited to see the future as user of REALVIZ products before they were acquired.

Last year we released a preview beta soliciting feedback at the request of our friends in the AUGI Japan user group AUGI-JP. The AutoCAD/LT 2008 Export Layout to Model Space preview tool provided the capability to take a snapshot of a drawing layout to create a ready-to-use model space drawing. With the capability to export layout objects to model space, customers who have limited their use of layouts in order to exchange drawings with other CAD systems will be able to fully realize the benefits of AutoCAD 2008 annotation scaling, layers per viewport, and other enhanced layout features.

After around the world great feedback on the preview we included this ability into AutoCAD 2009.

Export a Layout (Paperspace)

To a Modelspace DWG file.

Thank you for all the great feedback and to AUGI-JP for the initial request for the functionality that after release we found was a universal need.

I wanted to clarify a few things for the 3D workflow only people that emailed me after they made some incorrect assumptions based on the quick and heavily edited video in my last Jays Garage post. Oh and yes I noticed they spelled my name incorrectly and also listed the wrong URL for AutoCAD.

Believe it or not 2D is as critical and in some instances more critical than 3D depending on what you do, 3rd party programs, construction workflow, and your personnel. There are some things like the drawing a sketch of a part that are hard to beat AutoCAD's speed hands down and the sketch may be all that is needed to communicate the construction accurately. Sure there are some parts like the classic Ford Model T bearing cap that was shown on the video in 3D that are better in a 3D mechanical modeler, but Jay's Garage still has a vital need for 2D for many of their parts and documentation.

In addition to my many years of experience as an AutoCAD user, I have also been an Autodesk Inventor since before Autodesk Inventor R1 was released and having modeled several thousand part assembly of a motorcycle I fully understand and can appreciate the benefits of Autodesk Inventor and discussed with Jay's Team the benefit of Inventor and maybe that might be something they move to later and with the Autodesk Inventor Suite they get the best of AutoCAD in a Mechanical flavor as well as Autodesk Inventor a win-win. I also believe a small 3D scanner would be perfect for capturing the geometry of the existing parts for reverse design and creation of the replacement parts by Jay's Team.

So give respect to both 2D and 3D as they are equally vital in communication and neither will be replaced across the board in the future.

16 May 2008

I am sitting waiting for my tire to be fixed and just realized the Salt Lake City Utah AUGI CAD camp (www.cadcamp.com) is just next week. I won't be presenting at the event but chances are good I will be there as I am local here in Salt Lake. AUGI CAD camps are one day learning and networking events on Autodesk products. you get top notch trainers at an extremely affordable price. I hope to see and meet you there.

15 May 2008

Whoa, I just got a call from Jay Leno today telling me that the AutoCAD video was up on his website www.jaylenosgarage.com. This was a short fun web video segment we shot while I and fellow Autodesker Marie Domingo were down in Los Angeles visiting Jay's staff at the super cool garage facility housing one of the most impressive car collections in the world. In the video segment one of Jay's master of all things Jim and I were discussing a common use in their facility for AutoCAD to create replacement parts for the auto collection as most collection auto's replacement parts are not stock parts when Jay breaks one. ;-) AutoCAD is a very flexible Computer Aided Design "CAD" product allowing it to be used in many different ways and industries. We also have industry specific products such as Autodesk Inventor, Revit, etc at Autodesk but for many of the parts and needs of Jay Leno's Garage AutoCAD fits perfectly. Jay and his staff were awesome and the collection of cars was absolutely amazing. Before seeing Jay's car collection I thought Stanley Steamer was only a carpet cleaning company not a turn of the century steam powered vehicle which Jay had a couple of originals.

See the video below of Jim and I discussing AutoCAD use at Jay Leno's Garage!

I have some pretty cool other things in the works after my sabbatical as well as presentations and Q&A at AUGI CAD Camp June 11th 2008 in Phoenix Arizona and San Antonio and Austin Texas User Group meetings.

05 May 2008

See Jay Leno's solar and wind system for his car garage in the embedded video below or at www.jaylenosgarage.com. I got the rare opportunity to visit with Jay and his team a couple weeks ago in his secret car collection buildings and it was unbelievable to say the least.

I recently provided some AutoCAD 2009 upgrade training to Jay's team who use Autodesk products like AutoCAD and even Autosketch in the designing one off replacement parts for Jay's world class car collection when Jay breaks them. I got to reverse engineer a Model T Ford bearing cap in 3D while there. I met some of the worlds most experienced and knowledgeable engineers, car lovers, and top notch fabricators in his shop. This is also where I met the legendary Eddie Paul who is a legend in metal fabrication and designing cars for the movies, mechanical sharks, new types of motors and just about everything else using AutoCAD 2009 and 3ds Max and soon Autodesk Inventor.

I even got a slick ride back to my hotel in Jay's hydrogen cell powered GM SUV which runs on hydrogen. I would love to have a hydrogen powered vehicle but with only 40 of them made so far they run about 1 million dollars so the price needs to come down to an affordable level. One funny thing I found out is Jay is a happy mouse clicker on a computer "click" "click" "click" "click" when only one click was needed. He is a very down to earth guy off camera and like myself he does not sleep much and is always going.

Happy Cinco de Mayo everyone. I am currently on sabbatical until June but will continue to blog, of course. I have some great blog posts to finish now that I have more time to relax and concentrate as well as go through all my photos and video and organize them. It is absolutely rare and nice to have an employer that recognizes that employees need to take a good deal of time off every few years to relax and refresh and come back fresh. I will be trying to get some rest, hiking, and maybe sneak over to East High here in Salt Lake where they are filming High School Musical 3 as that would make my daughters day.

My rant today...I live in Utah and while the quality of life is rated in the top 3, we have some of the most beautiful and diverse country in the world, and the economy is still good but they do something's backwards like some of their traffic planning and their silly and ridiculed liquor laws. Now as of today all wine coolers can only be purchased in a state liquor store for no other reason that $$$ as they make a huge amount of money in this state but claim it is for the greater public safety which is plain hogwash ( 2007 Utah liquor profit $ 47+ million). Now today instead of a 1 ounce shot drink we get 1.5 ounce alcohol shots in our liquor drinks so we can almost get a real drink but you cannot order a side car extra shot anymore at a restaurant or club. So if you order a Margarita you cannot order a separate shot of tequila as they would be afraid you would add the extra shot to your drink. I think the best thing if you need more of a drink especially with some not able to made in a large glass due to the restrictions would be hypothetically if you ordered a Margarita have your friend order a Mai Tai, then you order a shot of rum and they order a shot of tequila then trade shots to accomplish your sidecar. We are still stuck with 3.0 beer...At least the Governor tried to change some of the laws but can't we police ourselves like most other states and not use the alcohol as a sneaky revenue source impacting our tourism. We really don't need the government to control everything of our lives as there should be personal responsibility encouraged.

My Utah photo gallery

Cheers,Shaan

01 May 2008

Now in AutoCAD 2009 you have the ability to pin items most used such as standard or detail DWG files. This can make the Recent Documents menu much more helpful. I cant tell you how many times I have spent looking for the same base file or document when by pinning the file I would have saved time having to search because it was off the most recent files menu. You can also set the Recent Documents to show a preview of the file as well.